Thousands of years of parenting advice — starting with the Bible — has been poo–pooed recently by "experts," who we're convinced never had children.
Your job, according to these academic dilettantes, was to be your child’s best friend and devote your life to raising their self-esteem.
As soon as you check your child out of daycare.
Although "educrats," wimpy parents, social workers and childless left-adherents eagerly embraced the new rules for child rearing, parents with common sense hunkered down and quietly adhered to the time-tested rules.
Lately the holdouts for common sense have received confirmation from a new set of parenting research.
Earlier we wrote, we are indebted to the Carolina Journal for finding this research.
"Conservative and very conservative parents are more likely to raise mentally healthy teens compared to liberal parents, according to a new study from the Institute for Family Studies and Gallup."
This deals a blow to the credibility of lifestyle and family reporters in the regime media whose job is to tell parents the key to raising children is to be their best friend, only with a car and disposable income.
The study found, "liberal parents are more likely to have a permissive parenting style and "are the least likely to successfully discipline their children.'"
It was our contention — admittedly not supported by the data set — that the child sitting behind you on the airplane kicking your seat was parented by a Biden voter.
You can find the rest of the column here.
Now we have confirmation for our theory from Dr. Leonard Sax — family physician, Ph.D., psychologist, and author of four books for parents.
"I have been a family doctor for nearly 34 years. Until recently, I saw no connection between politics and parenting.
"Left-of-center parents were no better and no worse parents, on average, than right-of-center parents.
"Some left-of-center parents were Too Harsh, some were Too Soft, and some were Just Right; and the same was true of right-of-center parents.
"[Now] I am seeing a political dimension to parenting. It is now much less common to find left-of-center parents who are both strict and loving.
"Loving, yes, but not strict. I’m seeing a growing number of parents like the mom I just described — parents who truly believe that it's virtuous to let the kid be in charge, even when the kid is a six 6-year-old with a fever who is refusing to let the doctor look at her throat."
When Sax appealed to the obstreperous child’s mother for help, mom said, without a hint of embarrassment, "Her Body, Her Choice."
That mantra will serve as a fitting epitaph should the child die of strep.
These left-adherent parents have adopted a philosophy of parenting called "gentle parenting" which essentially means childish immaturity rules all.
We’re sure you’ve seen the product of gentle parenting rumbling in the food court at your local mall, running up and down the aisle at restaurants, cavorting in movie theatres, insulting public school teachers and kicking the back of your seat 30,000 feet above flyover country.
Sax describes these parents as "aggressively permissive."
We'd add, they don’t appear to be Trump voters.
"They believe it’s actually virtuous to let kids decide everything. And those parents are not randomly distributed along the political spectrum: they are, as I said, overwhelmingly more likely to be left-of-center.’
These let-it-all-hang-out parents make our lives miserable in the short run when we encounter the products of their philosophy, but in the long run no guardrails parenting is bad for the children themselves.
" . . . researchers have found that permissive parenting leads to young adults with ‘less sense of meaning and purpose in life, less autonomy and mastery of the world around them.'
"Still other researchers report that permissive parenting is associated with an increased risk of drug and alcohol abuse, and lower academic achievement, while authoritative parenting is associated with lower risk of drug and alcohol abuse and higher academic achievement.
"The children of permissive parents are more likely to become anxious and depressed."
While lefty parents are raising children who won’t take no for an answer, the lefty parents won’t take sound advice.
"Today, when I counsel permissive parents on the importance of being more authoritative— setting rules and enforcing those rules, while communicating love for the child — left-of-center parents are more likely to push back.
"They tell me that they don’t want to be 'controlling' or 'coercive.'
"A decade ago, I could have persuaded such parents that kids need structure, rules, and consistency. Today, I don’t have much luck with permissive left-of-center parents: 'Her body, her choice.'"
While it’s nice to have our conclusions confirmed, it is really bad news for those children and the unfortunates who encounter them.
It provides yet another reason for conservatives to avoid blue states and blue state parents.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.